Echoes by Robin Jones Gunn Page B

The door opened, and they exited the building into the humid heat of the summer night. “A happily ever after, that’s what you want.”
    Lauren smiled. “It could happen.”
    “I know it could,” Mindy agreed as they waved good-bye over the tops of the cars. “And it will for you; you just wait and see. If anybody deserves for it to happen to her, it’s you, Miss Romance!”
    Lauren slid into the car and cranked on the air conditioning. The CD automatically started up a mellow jazz number, and she drove to her quiet apartment with a smile still on her face, congratulating herself on how far she had come since her breakup with Jeff nearly two months ago. She had cried only that one time in the apartment with Brad. Jeff had been pushed far from her thoughts. She was ready to move on.

Chapter Seven

    T hat evening Lauren finished reading her book and started on her paper. Five pages into the project, her computer’s cursor froze. She tried and tried to get it to move. Nothing worked. Lauren grabbed the phone and called Brad in California. All she got was his voice mail.
    Slipping down on her hands and knees, Lauren crawled under the desk and checked all the electrical cords Brad had connected. When she unplugged one of the cords and then stuck it back in the socket, her computer sounded a tone, indicating it had started back up.
    “Good,” she said, crawling out from under the desk. “Who needs a brainy brother?” After one look at the screen, she took back her words. Her paper was gone. Lauren started to open files, clicking on anything that would respond. It was hopeless. Her five pages had vanished.
    “Thanks a lot, you hunk of junk!” she shouted at the unyielding screen. Lauren tried again to call Brad and left amore desperate message on his voice mail, pleading for him to phone her immediately. She decided to send him an e-mail. They had been writing to each other about twice a week ever since Brad had brought her the computer. He was right about it being a good idea. She hadn’t corresponded anymore with KC, although the thought had intrigued her many times. There didn’t seem to be anything to say.
    Her letter to Brad was to the point:
    R AD ,
    HELP! I JUST LOST MY PAPER ON THE B ROWNINGS . H OW DO I GET IT BACK ?
    W REN
    She wasn’t paying attention when she sent the letter. The instant her fingers were off the keys, Lauren realized she had zapped the letter to KC instead of Brad. She had been meaning to delete KC’s number since she had never used it. KC hadn’t written her either, so she saw no point in keeping the number. Yet there it was, and she had just sent Rad’s message to him.
    “You are such a klutz!” Lauren knew she couldn’t cancel the letter. It had already taken off into cyberspace, and she knew of no way to “beam” it back home to her computer. She considered writing a note to KC explaining her mistake. However, if she let it go, he might not even notice it. At least she could still send it to Brad, and she did.
    Pushing back her chair from the narrow desk, thoroughly frustrated, Lauren decided to let the paper go until tomorrow. She was not in the mood to start all over, especially if Brad might have some ideas on how to pull her hard work out of the jaws of the electronic monster.
    It was 9:35. Bed sounded good; bed and her copy of Elizabeth’s
Sonnets from the Portuguese
. Once Lauren was ready for bed and settled under her crisp, cool white sheets, she opened the book at random and read:
    First time he kissed me, he but only kissed

The fingers of the hand wherewith I write;

And ever since, it grew more clean and white
,
Slow to world-greetings, quick with its “Oh, list,”

When the angels speak. A ring of amethyst

I could not wear here, plainer to my sight
,
Than that first kiss …
    There was more, but Lauren was content with only that portion to nibble on for awhile. The thought of a man’s first kiss being simply on her hands, or better still, as with